A is for Anagrams

To find out more about the A to Z Blogging Challenge, click here.

Definition: An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once. (Wikipedia)

Examples

William Shakespeare <=> I'll make a wise phrase

David Letterman <=> Nerd amid late TV

George Bush <=> He bugs Gore

Tom Marvolo Riddle <=> I am Lord Voldemort

Bruce Springsteen <=> Creep brings tunes

Jennifer Anniston <=> Fine in torn jeans

Princess Diana <=> End is a car spin

Isn't it amazing/scary how they're all true or at least make some kind of weird sense?!

Can you figure these ones out?

(highlight the right side with your mouse to see the answer)

Dormitory <=> Dirty room

Astronomer <=> Moon starer

The Titanic disaster <=> Death, it starts in ice

The eyes <=> They see

If you want to read some more you can click here. Or click here to make your own!

Can you make an anagram from your name?

Rachel Morgan <=> Monarch regal

(And apparently someone once said,

"All the life's wisdom can be found in anagrams. Anagrams never lie."

Well, I think I like my name's anagram ;-) hehehe)

Harry Potter Blogfest - Who Would Be Your Mates?

Choose which two characters would be YOUR best mates at Hogwarts. Then, all you have to do is write a fun little piece on why and what kind of trio you would be. 300 - 350 words.

I'm a bookworm, just like Hermione. That's how we met, actually -- in the library. She had fallen asleep amidst a pile of books, her head resting upon the open pages of New Theory of Numerology. I noticed that her copy of The Monster Book of Monsters had bitten its way through the belt that bound its cover and was nibbling her hair. I grabbed Hogwarts, a History and whacked that Monster Book into submission. Hermione woke up, of course, and was so grateful I'd saved the rest of her hair that she generously offered to help me with my homework. We ended up bonding over our mutual love of ancient runes and have been good friends ever since.

Incidentally, I also met Luna in the library. It bothered me that she was reading a book upside down so I attempted to show her the right way to hold it. She informed me that she was, in fact, deciphering a hidden code! Due to my love of numbers I've always been interested in codes and ciphers, so I sat down beside her and together we deciphered the message hidden (upside down) within the pages of Flesh Eating Trees of the World. Turns out there was a major conspiracy going on where Dark Wizards sent these pot plants to members of the Ministry of Magic and the pot plants just snapped the unlucky people up in a few mouthfuls! Hermione actually helped us fix that one (we needed some super brain power to get inside the Dark Wizards' headquarters and take them down), but that is another story!

~ ~ ~

Thanks so much, Michael of In Time, for hosting this blogfest :-)

Differences (2): School Dances

I'd really like it if someone could properly explain the terms homecoming and prom to me!
  Like, I don't know what the difference is,
  I don't know who is allowed to go to them (anyone from any year? Or only kids from a specific year? Only kids from that school? Or can you bring someone from another school?),
  I don't know when they are (are they always at the same time every year?),
  I don't know where they are (at the school, or does the school hire a separate venue, or is it different at different schools),
  and what's up with the king and queen business?

Here's how school dances work in South Africa:
(for all the schools I know of)

At the end of primary school (Grade 7) there was some kind of "social" thing. I can't even remember if it had a special name. I think it was like a pre-teen "disco" effort. Now that I think about it, it doesn't even count in this discussion!

Okay, moving onto high school (Grade 8 to Grade 12 a.k.a. Matric).

• At the end of Grade 11 some schools have a Grade 11 Dance (in my year, we didn't get one because on our Bonding Tour (that's a whole other story!) some people trashed part of a hotel with shaving cream and eggs...). It's for the Grade 11 students but if you want to bring a date from another grade or another school that's okay (unless your school has a rule that it's only for their Grade 11s)
• In Grade 12 (Matric) there is the Matric Dance. This is like the dance of one's high school career. People make way too much a major fuss over it: Girls have their nails and hair and makeup done and (if you have the money!) you get your dress designed for you. (Guys pretty much just hire a suit and show up on the day!). The dance is for the Matric students (duh!) but if you want to invite a date from a younger grade or another school that is usually fine. It happens at different times of the year at different schools and (as far as I know) we don't do the king and queen thing. Some schools decorate their school hall for the dance and others (like mine) waste a huge amount of money fundraise so that they can hire a fancy venue.

My Personal Matric Dance Experience

So there was this guy I liked :-) (isn't there always?!) I finally worked up the courage to ask him to go with me -- and he said YES! I can't tell you how ecstatic I was! Then a few days later he came over and said...

Ex-date: So [girl-who-used-to-go-to-our-school] really wants to come to our Matric dance because, you know, she knows everyone here, so [boy-who-still-goes-to-our-school] said he'd take her. But now he's taking [some-other-girl-I-don't-remember] and... well... I totally forgot about this but a while ago I kinda said to [girl-who-used-to-go-to-our-school] that if no one else was taking her I'd take her.

Me: *shock*

Ex-date: So... how about this? If, two weeks before the dance, neither of us is going with someone else, then we can go together..?

Me: *Thinks* Sure, I'll just wait until the last second, just in case you still happen to be available, and while you're at it, why don't you just dump a bucket of ice-cold water over my head and punch me in the stomach, asshole?!!
*Says* Um, sure, okay... no problem.

Anyway, I didn't end up waiting till the last minute. A family friend set me up with this really nice guy from another school. We chatted via text and e-mail and met up a few times before the dance. The dance itself was kinda awkward (because one of my friends also didn't have a date so I got really-nice-guy to bring his friend along for her, and I don't think they got along too well...) and in the end I decided that far too much fuss is made over school dances! Really-nice-guy and I ended up going to the same university and staying in brother and sister residences (so we had all our meals together) and while I did like him for a while, we ended up just being friends :-)

So how do school dances work where you live?

And if you'd like to share your school dance experience please feel free to :-)

FINISHED!

I just wanted to record on the immortal internet machine that on

27/03/2011 at 12:45pm

I finished the first draft of my first novel ever!

And that only took me like... um, 15 months!
(6 months longer than planned!)

PS. Don't talk to me about the long slog of editing and revisions that now lies ahead of me. I'm still in my happy place!
PPS. And I won't tell you the current word count 'cause you'll FREAK!

Book Review: Across the Universe, by Beth Revis

A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone -- one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship -- tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship, and the love she could never have seen coming.

(summary from Goodreads)

Recently it's been taking me about two weeks to read a book.
*gasp!*
Shocker, I know. Two weeks is a long time. But I've been really busy, okay! Anyway, my point is that I received ACROSS THE UNIVERSE on Saturday morning, started reading Saturday evening, and finished reading Monday afternoon. Because it was too good to put down!

This was a book where things just kept happening! Seriously, I kept on saying to myself, "Just one more chapter... Just one more chapter..." and before I knew it I'd read like ten more chapters! And then just when I thought the story was winding down and coming to a close, there was another shocker!! Wham!

The POV alternated with each chapter between Amy and Elder. Every now and then I got confused for a few sentences about whose mind I was in, but for the most part it was really interesting to see this new world through two different sets of eyes. And it helped with the pacing I think.

The world-building is fantastic. Beth has thought about all the details - like the fact that after generations of being away from earth, the people aboard Godspeed have developed a different accent, and they have their own colloquialisms and swear words, and they're all monoethnic because of having a small "breeding pool".

So yeah. Bottom line: wow!